The Toon chief was desperate to bring in Andros Townsend and on this evidence, you can understand why..

His side look flat and though they had plenty of chances to win this game, ultimately QPR deserved to share the spoils.

If anything happens to Jonjo Shelvey that really will be the stuff of nightmares for the Toon boss.

Shelvey is the driving force behind the Magpies’ promotion bid with his passing range and ability to dictate the tempo of a game.

Tonight he showed he’s as good at taking goals as making them, firing Newcastle into the lead after just 38 seconds with a blistering volley from the edge of the box.

Jonjo Shelvey scores for the first time after suspension against QPR

JONJO SHELVEY scored his first goal since returning from a four-match suspension against QPR at St James' Park.

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SKY SPORTS

Jonjo Shelvey scores for the first time after suspension against QPR

“Newcastle drew 2-2 with QPR”

The 47,907 crowd were probably expecting a repeat of the 6-0 rout at Loftus Road five months ago, when Shelvey scored so early.

But it wasn’t quite as simple as that with QPR underlining their improvement away from home under Ian Holloway with a spirited display.

Newcastle do, however, have the happy knack of scoring goals out of nothing and when Matt Ritchie outjumped his marker to meet Isaac Hayden’s 54th minute cross with a meaty header to regain the lead, they looked on course for victory.

But they slipped up at the death when former Toon youngster Kazenga Lualua’s angled cross was backheaded into the net by Clark with Karl Darlow stranded.

“We’re all disappointed we could not get three points,” said Benitez, clearly still upset at a lack of January signings.

“We needed to score the third goal to finish the game and to concede an own goal at the end was awful.”

QPR had done well to recover from a dreadful start and should have been ahead by half-time.

A dawdling Pawel Wszolek allowed Ritchie to nick the ball off him in front of goal after being brilliantly set up by Conor Washington on 12 minutes and Massimo Luongo’s header forced a fine save out of Karl Darlow.

Newcastle had struggled to contain Washington throughout and when Jake Bidwell’s goalbound volley reached him with his back to goal, he swivelled to prod home from close range.

A Paul Dummett mistake let in Wszolek who was brilliantly denied by Darlow before Ritchie eased Toon nerves with that second goal.

Yoan Gouffran and Ayoze Perez then spurned chances to seal victory before Clark’s horror moment let Rangers back in it.